ce symptoms of allergic reaction such as rash, swelling, or difficulty breathing or swallowing. do not take invokana® if you have severe liver or kidney problems or are on dialysis. te your doctor about any medical conditions and medications you take. using invokana® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. it's time to turn things around. lower your blood sugar with invokana®. imagine loving your numbers. there's only one invokana®. ask your doctor about it by name. hollywood international airport, that airport open again today after yesterday's shooting spree. near me is terminal 2, where that gunman opened fire at the baggage claim killing five

people and wounding six others. behind me is that airport tarmac just off here to my right where thousands of frantic travelers fled when those shots rang out. most remaining on that tarmac for hours after the shooting. now, the very latest on the investigation. the fbi saying today that the gunman, 26-year-old esteban santiago especialspecially targ ft. lauderdale international airport to carry out the shooting. >> indications are that he came here to carry out this horrific attack. we have not identified any triggers that would have caused this attack. >> now, according to the chief of police at the anchorage airport, santiago checked only one item, and that item was the handgun case no luggage. officials said that e horrific shooting lasted for about 70 seconds before police officers were able to respond to santiago. santiago has been interrogated throughout the night and into

this morning. >> the suspect did cooperate with the interview team, which was a joint combined fbi broward sheriff's office. the interview went over several hours and concluded some time this morning, at which point he was then transported to the broward county jail booked on federal charges. >> now, those federal charges are expected to be released today. the motive still unknown. investigators poring through airport security video to find more clues. now, authorities say terrorism has not been ruled out. that is one of the things that they are considering as well as his mental health. there's also new details on the victims we're learning. five are dead, the number of the wounded were lowered from originally being eight, now that number stands at six. nbc's gabe gutierrez is live outside the hospital. he's been there all day getting more accounts of some of those victims. gabe, is there an update on the condition of the victims? are we expecting some of those

to be released today? >> yes, ayman, good afternoon. we're learning from hospital officials that one of those six gunshot victims is expected to be released later today. but as you mentioned right now there are six gunshot victims being treated here at broward health medical center. three of them are in good condition. three of them are in the intensive care unit. we just heard from the ceo of the hospital a short time ago. here's some of whate had to say. >> six shooting victims, they range in terms of their prognosis, but they're being supported by their loved ones and the staff members. and everyone who came through our doors has their life today and we're making sure that they enjoy the gift of life. >> now, we have heard from the eldest daughter of one of the victims who was killed, this was 62-year-old terry andrees of virginia, he worked at the norfolk naval yard there in virginia. he's being remembered by his

loved ones. authorities have not publicly identified the rest of the shooting victims, but we are starting to learn just a bit more about them. there is another victim in iowa, also near the border with omaha, nebraska. we are hearing from the employer of carrie of council bluffs, iowa. people are remembering her husband who was shot and killed, she was shot and she survived. in georgia as well we're also hearing of a great-grandmother in marietta, georgia, and her church community is remembering her, ayman. so these were folks many of them coming here for a vacation. the person who was killed from virginia he was here with his wife celebrating his birthday and was heading out on a cruise. so certainly a heartbreaking tragedy here. again, the latest news, one more gunshot victim is expected to be released later on this evening. right now six gunshot victims being treated, three in good

condition, three in intensive care. ayman. >> all right, nbc's gabe gutierrez live outside the hospital for us here int. lauderdale. and obviously many questioning why santiago was allowed to have a gun in the airport in the first place. the fbi said that he was not on any no-fly list, but the broward county sheriff, scott israel, said earlier today in a news conference that no one with mental illness should be allowed to carry a gun. take a listen to what he said. >> if they are suffering from mental illness or they're on a no-fly list or they're a convicted felon, they flat out shouldn't be allowed to own handguns or rifles. >> so the district's congresswoman, debbie wasserman-schultz says she will review federal laws allowing guns to be checked in into airport baggage. that's obviously a question a lot of people have. take a listen to what she said. >> there's no question that we need to review not only the question of whether people should be able to travel but with their firearms even if

they're in checked baggage, but i think we need to look -- take a hard look at the security around baggage claim areas. >> all right. joining me now to discuss all of this is chad wolf, former assistant tsa administrator for security policy. chad, great to have you with us this afternoon. so let me start out with a piece of information that has kind of surprised a lot of folks. esteban santiago traveled all the way from alaska here to ft. lauderdale with no bags, nothing checked in except his handgun case. is that a red flag that was missed? >> no, not specifically. you can check any number of items on airlines. and so just having one case with a firearm -- firrms travel every day on airlines. so having this one individual check just a firearms case is not in and of itself going to set a red flag. >> we know that some of the security measures that are put on place when somebody's checking in their gun,

especially if there's ammunition that it has to be legally checked and locked and all of these issues. but talk to us about when santiago arrived here and the fact he was able to retrieve his bag from the baggage claim and then ultimately load his weapon and come out and shoot people. is there anything that could have been done differently from a security perspective to prevent that from happening? >> no. i mean, once you arrive at the airport and you're in the baggage claim, or you're even in the ticket counter or parking areas at an airport, these airports are treated more like, you know, a shopping mall at that point. it becomes an open air venue. so how do you police that? what's the security around that? that's really the question is how do you secure what i call the front side of the airport. again, the ticket counter, the baggage claim area, the parking areas. so historically that's been through increased presence of law enforcement officials, both tsa, local law enforcement and airport authority. that's what they're going to look at. was the law enforcement presence

there at the ft. lauderdale airport sufficient? because we know tsa is primarily clustered around that checkpoint and making sure bad people and bad things don't get on airplanes. but what happens in the baggage claim area? in this case in this incident the dividual retrieved his checked bag like any other individual, but it's really what was in that checked bag that becomes the issue. so to your earlier point, you know, the question i think a lot of folks will certainly look at and certainly the congresswoman mentioned it is, you know, do airports need to be firearm-free zones? that's really what the issue comes down to. i think the tsa procedures in this case i'm sure they're looking into it but appears as though they were followed. so the question really becomes firearms inside airports. and that's a larger issue, i think, that needs to be tackled. >> yeah. let me get to that point just really quickly if i can. you know, when there was a threat of the shoe bomber and the liquids and the gels on the plane, we saw obviously security postures change. those restrictions were put in

place. you know, with the samsung galaxy tablet when people had concerns about batteries and lithium batteries we saw restrictions put on those as well. so does this now widen the discussion into something beyond just airport security into as you were saying an issue of should we allow guns at the airport, or does this expose this incident does it expose a security vulnerability that we now have to address but can still live with? >> yeah, it certainly highlights a vulnerability. i think it's a vulnerability that's been in place which is the soft side of the airport, which i think a lot of individuals and a lot of officials have known about. it's the areas outside of that checkpoint. so the checkpoint has a lot of tsa personnel, law enforcement personnel there, what's happening in the other parts of the airport? so i think this incident really highlights that. it does point to the larger issue thoughf once a firearm is inside one of these areas at the ticket counter, someone's trying to declare it at that point, they can take it out and do some damage there. so the question becomes in the soft parts of the airport what do we do with firearms?

again, i think that's a larger debate but it's certainly one that tsa and others are certainly looking at. >> all right. chad wolf, former assistant tsa administrator for security policy, thank you, sir, very much for joining us. appreciate your insights. >> thank you. we're going to have a lot more from here in ft. lauderdale in just a bit. i'm going to turn it over to my colleague richard lui in new york. before i do that we want to update viewers we are expecting a press conference from the fbi field office in alaska at 4:30 p.m. eastern time. we're going to have that for you, plus all the developments on the investigation. again, that press conference scheduled at 4:30 p.m. eastern time from the fbi office in alaska. now back to my colleague richard lui in new york. >> ayman, thank you for that. see you in about five or ten minutes. turn to double trouble on the weather front which we're watching here at msnbc. two massive storms slamming both the east and west coast. one system paralyzing parts of the east with snow and ice, few states declaring states of emergency. that storm being blamed for as many as four deaths so far. nbc's tammy lite ner is in

norfolk, virginia, which is under a blizzard warning for us. tamy, how is it where you're at? >> richard, to be honest, it's just awful out here. it has been snowing all day, rain, sleet and now a lot of wind. take a look over here. they've been doing a really good job plowing the roads here in this area, but in other states not such a good job. they're having actually a lot of trouble. the snowplows are working around the clock, and they're not used to this type of work. in tennessee a snowplow slid down the road narrowly missing two buses that were stuck and ended up crashing into two cars. in oklahoma the roads have become very, very icy, which is a concern when the temperatures drop. hundreds of accidents there. 25 states affected by this storm in the path. millions of people obviously affected by this as well. and it's pounding the east coast from t jersey shore to manhattan. and back here in virginia this blizzard warning is set to go

until 10:00. they're advising everybody stay off the roads, stay inside, stay safe. richard. >> thank you so much for that. appreciate it. back to you later as we watch that storm as it moves through the east. we also have a second storm that we're watching this afternoon on a saturday. and it's now in the western part of the country. it's delivering large amounts of snow and rain that could cause deadly floods and mud slides. for a look at both storms and what to expect for the rest of the weekend, go to msnbc meteorologist bonnie schneider. i know you're going to start in the east, but then we have the west that's historic storm for them too. >> yeah, they're describing it as prolific out there in the national weather service in sacramento with good reason. so our storm here we're facing in new york bringing us plenty of snow continues to batter areas towards new england, long island as we go into the evening hours. had to show radar because visibility is so bad. just don't travel. you've heard a lot of people talking about that all the way from new jersey up from delaware really into new england. we're just looking at treacherous weather. into tonight and into the early hours of tomorrow morning blizzard conditions south of

boston. so we're looking at a lot of snow, strong wind and those brutally cold temperatures. this is a good saturday to kind of hunker down and stay inside. it's also very cold where we've had the snow in the east. i know there were just traces of little bit of light snow into atlanta, but north and west of the city we got more substantial snow. you had to shovel out. with those cold temperatures tonight, dangerous conditions. also quite a gradient in north carolina depending on where you were. you may have seen a little snow or a lot. two areas to the east where we're getting the heaviest snow almost two feet in some areas. that's nothing compared to the rain and the snow that's expected due to this atmospheric river. it's a plume of tropical moisture coming in off the pacific. and it just doesn't want to stop. so we'll be looking for this flood threat with the ground being completely saturated, especially in the burn areas, richard. and we're not only looking at the threat for heavy rain but really high snowll totals along areas into the west. some of these will be up to five feet going forward. >> one of the thoughts as they're talking about in the

west is will this help the drought situation there, bonnie, what are you hearing on that? >> well, i think it will help the drought. the only problem is we're seeing so much so soon. and with the potential for snow melt, we're really looking at that flood risk. i mean, this is all the moisture you can see here. and the areas in pink translate that to snow. so heavy amounts in those high elevations. >> all right. thank you so much, msnbc meteorologist bonnie schneider. we'll be touching base throughout the next couple hours. thank you for the latest on that. much more on the potentially historic flooding in california. but next for you, president-elect donald trump has some new things to say about russia following his intelligence briefing on russian hacking. more on that. what's it like to be in good hands? like finding new ways to be taken care of. home, car, life insurance obviously, ohhh... but with added touches you can't get everywhere else, like claim free rewards... or safe driving bonus checks. oh yes.... even a claim satisfaction guaranteeeeeeeeeee!

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welcome back everyone. i'm ayman mohyeldin in ft. lauderdale, florida.

we're learning that the fbi's field office in anchorage, alaska, will hold a news conference at 4:30 p.m. eastern time with more information on the airport shooting suspect esteban santiago. we're going to bring that to you as soon as it happens. much more from here in a moment, but for now back to my colleague richard lui in new york. >> ayman, thanks for that as we tag team all day here as we're watching what's happening in ft. lauderdale. we're going to move to politics, president-elect today continuing to weigh in on his briefing with top intelligence officials. yesterday doing that. the agencies confirming a newly declassified report that russian president vladimir putin ordered a quote influence campaign aimed at hurting hillary clinton's campaign and helping donald trump along the way. trump reiterating his initial statement in response to that report tweeting this morning saying, quote, intelligence stated very strongly there was absolutely no evidence that hacking affected the election results. voting machines not touched. nbc's ron allen is outside trump tower for us with the very

latest. ron, the report did not say that. what else did we learn from the report though? >> well, that is the main point that donald trump wants to make. that the intelligence investigation did not find that the russians hacked the voting process, the vote counts or the way people cast their ballots. there's agreement about that. no one is disputing that donald trump won the election and no one is disputing the fact that the russians did not directly affect the vote tabulation. but today here from trump tower there's been a barrage of tweets starting at about 6:00 this morning, at least a half dozen or more. many with the same theme as the one you just showed. also, citing and blaming the democratic national committee for what the president-elect calls gross negligence by not defending itself well enough to prevent the hacking in the first place. he also said that the democrats are doing this because they're, quote, totally embarrassed by losing the election.

he also said some very favorable things about potentially working with russia to solve some of the world's problems. and he said something about how anybody who thinks that good relations with russia is a bad idea is stupid or a fool, were the words that the president-elect used. so some blunt language, a barrage of tweets, the president-elect using social media instead of talking to the media directly because he can talk to his 47 millionollorsdice and they understand. that's what's been happening here today. the president-elect just not saying -- just not getting to the point where he will blame or point the finger at the russians in connection with the election hacking. >> so since you've been covering this, ron, is there any indication that the new administration, that the trump administration in the end will take any action against russia based on this report? >> well, there are those sanctions that are in place that the obama administration issued a week or so ago. the question is whether or not donald trump will reverse those. there are also an array of sanctions against the russians

for a couple of years now because of their invasion of ukraine and taking over of crimea, the province, the area of ukraine. the united states and its allies have been trying to force the russians to pull back. and they won't. and sanctions have been in place. and some would argue that those sanctions have not really accomplished much of anything. but whether donald trump takes -- what exactly he does or responds directly in terms of the election, i guess that just remains to be seen. my guest and i think what most people would think is that he wants to move on past this because he pushes back at any suggestion that there's anything that happened that questions the outcome of the election that he won. >> nbc's ron allen there outside of trump tower. ron, thank you so much for that report. as we all know in 13 days trump will take that oath of office there in washington, d.c. and the question which was being discussed with ron allen is how will russia be held accountable for its actions related to this report if at all. and here to discuss that is erin

johnson, former regional director of the obama 2012 campaign, noelle, republican strategist and fundraiser. theron, let's start with you and we want to underline again what ron was saying although president-elect trump was saying here that this report established that it had no effect, russia's tampering with our systems here or the process of the election had no effect on the outcome of the election. that's what donald trump is saying. yet the report clearly does not say that. when you look at that contrast and the agencies not saying that, what might be the next step for the agencies here? >>ell, richard, this is very troubling. and you just outlined the problem. the problem is that president-elect trump will not accept the conclusive evidence that was provided to him in a two-hour meeting that clearly show that russia's president, president putin, basically directed a cyber attack aimed at

denying hillary clinton to be the next president of the united states of america. instead what he's done leading up to his tweets at 6:00 this morning, he's continued to undermine these agencies. and these are agencies that not only president-elect trump is going to depend onto get intelligence to protect our homeland, but these are agencies that the american people are counting onto make sure they can protect us. this is very, very concerning. now, you asked me what he can do, richard, the first thing he can do is what ron just pointed out is to make sure that not only does he reinstate but uphold the sanctions that president obama has put in place to try to find a solution to get to the bottom of this problem. i think and that's the big concern for us as the american people. >> doesn't look like that will happen though, tharon. an intel report here, russian president vladimir putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the u.s. presidential election. put that aside and trump ice tweet today saying, having a

good relationship with russia is a good thing, not a bad thing -- we were playing this a second ago, only stupid people or fools would think it is bad. is it always stupid people are fools? >> oh, gosh, richard, this puts any republican strategist in a very difficult spot to be, you know, discussing this kind -- a tweet, you know, by the president-elect. but i'll take a stab at it. i really think that, you know, i am hoping that donald trump is doing this as some sort of tom foolery so when he gets in office maybe he's going to say, all right, i'm going to bargain with these sanctions. point and case could be he could tell russia, all right, let me tell you something, i will retract some of these sanctions if you will remove some military presence in the ukraine. so there is a possibility, just a possibility, that he could be using some sort of a strategy to act like he's okay with russia and it's okay, he wants to have a great relationship. but when he takes power using

this to bargain with with military presence. >> let's talk about when he does take power here, josh. so noon on that great day of january 20 he now brings in his own folks. is that then see the shift? because he has his own people effectively giving him intel during these briefings. does he then shift and say i believe what's happening, i have faith in the intel community? is that what we're going to see? >> not when he's saying these specific things. he said during the campaign that he thinks people of crimea are fine with the russians being in crimea. i don't think he's playing a complex game to get favors out of russians. i think he has a favorable view toward vladimir putin and i think it's partly because donald trump has this bizarre thing with reciprocity, when people say nice things about him he feels compelled to say nice things about them. i don't know this affected the election result. the report doesn't say either way because that's not what they were investigating. and there's really no way to know how people would have voted if these hacks hadn't happened. but i think donald trump is grateful. and i think more broadly when

people -- even in the second presidential debate when hillary clinton said like the minimum nice thing about donald trump's kids, it caused trump to come back and say hillary clinton's a fighter and she never gives up. totally different from what he'd been saying about her before, because she said a nice thing about him. i think with putin it's putin's been nice to him, he's going to be nice to putin, i see no reason that will change on january 20th. >> okay. we shall see. we have your prediction there. we'll have to leave it there. it's a tight day on breaking news, look at weather as well as ft. lauderdale. thank you all three for stopping by. always great to have all three of you here. let's head back to ft. lauderdale and ayman mohyeldin. >> yeah, much more ahead from here from ft. lauderdale, richard. we're going to actually talk to somebody, a man who was in this airport when those shots rang out and the panic that sank in for him and for the hundreds of thousands of people that were stranded here. also, we're going to go to live to alaska where the suspect is from. we know his family is there. reporters are trying to speak to them, so certainly is the fbi.

we're going to look into anything in his past that could have been reason for concern for investigators. we'll have a lot more on that, richard.

welcome back everyone. i'm ayman mohyeldin in ft. lauderdale, florida, at the half hour mark. flights are taking off and landing here at the airport a day after a shooting here killed five people and wounded six others. now, officials say the whole ordeal lasted just over a minute, about 70 seconds in total before the suspect was taken into custody. the fbi says it is still looking for a motive behind this attack. the fbi now says it will hold a news conference in about two hours or so from now. this one is going to be held in anchorage, alaska, along with local police in the community there. for the very latest on the investigation, we turn to nbc's justice correspondent pete williams, he's in washington for us but following all the developments. pete, any idea what we may be hearing from the fbi and local

law enforcement in alaska in relation to this investigation? >> well, i think that they'll probably talk about two things, ayman. i'm not sure about this, but one would be what they've been talking about a little bit at the airport, which is what happened when esteban santiago, the suspect here checked into the airport here in anchorage thursday night. the chief opolice up there has told u santiago had just one ece of baggage, one thing to check in,nd that was the case that held a gun. it was not a piece of luggage with the gun in it. it was just the gun case. if you go to check in a gun, a firearm, to fly, you have to have it in an approved case that locks. and the authorities both there and the fbi have said he followed all the tsa procedures. so he had no other baggage. i suspect they'll talk a little bit about that. and then we may hear a little more about the circumstances of his visit to the fbi in november when federal officials say he came in speaking largelyin

coherently but clamging that the cia was controlling his mind and forcing him to watch isis videos on the internet. now, after that discussion with him, the police were called. he was taken for mental health treatment. and his authorities say he's repeatedly sought treatment there in anchorage. so part of this investigation is how much did that play a role in this, was there a terrorism connection, was he radicalized by watching these isis materials. it's going to be very hard to tease out and separate which is the dominant influence here. and of course they don't have any idea why he went to ft. lauderdale. why did he go there to carry out the shooting? they do say there are indications that when he boarded that plane in anchorage connecting through minneapolis to ft. lauderdale, that he had this shooting in mind before he even got on the plane. and that would be -- the suggestion of that of course also the fact he only checked the gun, those are the sorts of things they're trying to figure out now and i suspect that's what we'll hear more about in

about two hours. >> all right, nbc news justice correspondent pete williams live for us in washington. thanks for that, pete. as we've been discussin anchorage, alaska plays a very important part of this investigation. joining us live from anchorage is nbc's gotti schwartz. anchorage going to be the scene of this press conference. i know you've been there trying to gather more clues about this suspect, the shooter, his family connections, any warning signs that may have been missed while he was in anchorage. what are you learning so far today from your investigation? >> well, so far here in the neighborhood we're getting a little bit of information about him but not much because neighbors say for the most part he stuck to himself. we do understand that he lived in this home right here behind me with his girlfriend and neighbors, at least some of the neighbors in the immediate vicinity described hearing the two arguing. we also know at some point last year police were called here for a domestic violence incident. in that incident the girlfriend of esteban santiago claimed that

he broke something in her home, was destructive and then tried to strangle her. but by the time police got here he had already left. they were unable to find him. and then the charges against him were later dismissed. then as pete williams mentioned he went to the fbi headquarters, which is just about five minutes away from this home, in november complaining about the cia controlling his mind and then he was turned over to the local police again there. so that press conference is coming up. we're going to be asking a lot of questions about the contact that both police and the fbi had with him. the red flags that were raised and whether or not a motive could be established in this case. back to you. >> and, gadi, let me ask you this, pete williams was mentioning there's an attempt to tease out one being the mental health and one being the question of radicalization whether he was affiliated or associated or inspired by extremist groups. have you gotten a sense of anyone you're talking to there

or what you're hearing from reports that there was anything that would suggest he had some kind of affiliation to extremist? i know his family has spoken about mental health issues, but has anyone said anything about possible connections to extremist groups? >> not a peep about the extremist groups out here. in fact, from what his family has said he was very pro-american. and the only information we have about his mental health that really paints a picture as to problems is from his family, his brother said up here in alaska he originally came here to find work. and he was constantly in fights. and then his family also said after he came back from a deployment in iraq he came back different. he came back disturbed. so those are some of the things that we're hearing. but at this point here in alaska we haven't spoken to anybody that has given any indication that he may have been radicalized or had any proclivity to anything that had to do with isis. >> all right. nbc's gadi schwartz in anchorage, alaska for us also going to be tracking that news conference in a few hours time.

thank you very much for that. let's head back to new york now and my colleague richard lui. ayman, thank you for that. next here on msnbc, donald trump picking for secretary of state gearing up for his confirmation hearing next week. we'll take a look at some of the tough questions rex tillerson could face and what role his relationship with vladimir putin will have in that hearing.

welcome back. president-elect trump's choice for secretary of state, that's rex tillerson, is going to be going before the senate foreign relations committee this wednesday beginning the process. tillerson made the rounds meeting with lawmakers in both parties, but the newly retired ceo of exxon mobil could face more contentious battles because of his ties to russia. the author of new book "red line" american foreign policy in a time of fractured politics and failing states. great book. p.j., i want to touch base with

you first on what has been happening before we get to the hearings themselves and that is with regards to the intel report and that which has been said about it. donald trump tweeting this morning and we've been talking about it this hour, he's saying in one of his tweets, having a good relationship with russia is a good thing, not a bad thing. only stupid people or fools would think that is bad. and then he adds onto say both countries will perhaps work together. in one of his tweets this comes less than 24 hours after he got that intel briefing on the hacking scandal, which a declassified report blames squarely on vladimir putin. so we are seeing two messages, one from the intel community, one from president-elect trump. they do not agree with each other. some saying that donald trump is clearly lying. your thought? >> well, i mean, as an aspiration, you'd like to have a constructive relationship, you know, with russia. but as we saw in the hearing in the senate this week with the senior members of the intelligence community, you

know, there's a -- obviously there's the reality that there was an infence campaign ordered at the very top of the russian government. and the senate is looking to figure out what do we do about this, what kind of response should there be including sanctions. and so i'm sure that mr. tillerson is going to be probed on all of these subjects, how he views russia, how he views sanctions, what are the prospects of a good relationship with russia. and he's going to face a very skeptical panel on capitol hill. >> on that very topic here, p.j., as we look as those confirmation hearings happening in just a handful of days, now with what has been said by president-elect trump and what came out on friday with that declassified section of the report or that report itself, five pages really of meat, will that make it more difficult for tillerson here? he is going to be the person that many of these senators will be directing those who are not supportive of president-elect's

statements about the intel report, tillerson may now have to answer those very questions. >> well, i mean, it is an odd kind of situation, richard, in that normally familiarity with a country like russia, familiarity with the leadership of that country, you know, would be seen as an asset, you know, for a prospective secretary of state. obviously in this case given the deep skepticism in the country on capitol hill about the nature of the relationship, you know, all of a sudden an asset becomes a potential, you know, liability. so i think he's going to be pressed. and i think senators are going to try to see if -- in particular on the democratic side, if they can create some distance or some separation between, you know, trump who has said some admiring things about vladimir putin during the campaign, and tillerson who by, you know, reports has a much more sober understanding of

russia as an adversary. >> p.j., as part of this want to play a little bit from republican senator lindsey graham who said this week, if tillerson does not agree that russia hacked the election, graham will not give him his vote during that confirmation hearing. we're talking about tillerson. let's take a look at what he's saying. >> he'll have a hard time getting my vote because it's clear, again, you don't have to be sherlock holmes. >> is this what we're going to see a lot of folks falling behind what lindsey graham is saying? >> and there is a middle ground there. you know, that one can say that, yes, there was a hack, it's a serious issue. it is something that should influence the relationship going forward with russia. while also acknowledging as mr. trump has that it's hard to gauge what precise impact this influence campaign had on the actual election. so there's middle ground there that has eluded donald trump, i think rex tillerson if he's smart will get there as quickly as possible. >> at that large building you worked at, department of state,

and all of the individuals that worked for you and for the secretary of state, when you look at rex tillerson and his linkages to russia based on his work at exxon mobil, when you look at the sort of arctic drilling deals, you talk about any sort of oil deal with a large oil company and any -- they are working very, very closely. and they really do get to understand the workings of a government. in rex tillerson's case, is this good or bad from your perspecti perspective? and would you vote to confirm him to be the next secretary of state? >> well, if you're the ceo of a major multinational corporation, you have done diplomacy. you have done deals. you have an enviable contact list throughout europe and throughout the middle east. those are assets. and their experience directly relevant to his prospective position as secretary of state. i think in tillerson's case his challenge is that we just got

some notion, some impulses, you know, from dald trump during the course of the campaign, nato obsolete, china is ripping us off, china should do more regarding north korea. and i think we can find common ground with russia with regard to syria. >> yeah. >> so tillerson will be pressed to see if he can begin to put, you know, some meat on those threads in terms of what a trump foreign policy will be. you know, tillerson's challenge obviously is how much flexibility will a trump transition team, you know, give him. >> yeah. >> under a normal circumstance he'd try to avoid making specific commitments say, hey, these are important issues. if you confirm, i'll come back and work with you on capitol hill. but obviously given the contentious position that trump has taken particularly with respect to russia, you know, the skepticism of the relationship on capitol hill, the desire on capitol hill to do something to respond, you know, to this russia influence campaign, is going to put tillerson in a very, very awkward position.

>> quickly, we got to go, yes or no, does he get the majority of the support of diplomats you know that you've heard of, that you've spoken with? >> i think tillerson will be confirmed. if i think the senate is going to perhaps have major questions it's probably more likely to be tillerson's prospective deputy john bolton. >> p.j., always a pleasure. former assistant secretary of state. appreciate it. >> thanks, richard. >> all right. don't miss president obama's farewell address to the country live this tuesday special coverage right here on msn msnbc 8:00 p.m. eastern. stick around for that. we'll be right back.

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>> that was one of the eyewitnesses that i spoke to at the baggage claim today. she was a public schoolteacher. coincidentally had gone through two active shooter training drills at her school. and so was already somewhat prepared for this although nothing she says could have prepared her for the real thing. but it gives you a sense of the horrific experiences that so many witnesses and travelers and certainly the victims of this tragedy have experienced. and a lot of questions still surrounding the motivation behind that shooter. perhaps we're going to get some more information on what possibly motivated esteban santiago to commit this heinous act. when the fbi holds that press conference in about an hour and a half time from now from anchorage, alaska. so we'll certainly be monitoring that story for you as well. we'll have more eyewitness accounts for you in the hours ahead as well. to protect it. at legalzoom, our network of attorneys can help you every step of the way. with an estate plan including wills or a living trust that grows along with you

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rising in the west. a historic storm moving in this weekend. that system stretching from southern oregon to southern california bringing both inches of snow and rain. nbc's steve patterson is in san francisco, california. steve, what's the latest there? >> yeah, richard, well, we are well into this storm now. it's been raining here in san francisco for a few hours albeit lightly. the worst is yet to come. forecasters now saying this may be a once in a quarter century event bringing flooding that we haven't seen at least in a decade. the worst of it is going to hit parts of north california, specifically looking -- at areas where there's a large snow pack, where there's this warm system that's moved in and where the flood and runoff may affect those areas. specifically looking at a storm zone stretching from southern oregon all the way down to southern california, places like if you go up from there los

angeles, san francisco, reno, portland, all facing sustained either snowfall or rainfall totals that will affect people on the roads. notd only that, but we're looking at rock slides, mudslides, things like flooding and washouts on the roads that could affect property damage. it could affect power outages. it could even be proven fatal with those factors in place here. so a lot of people taking warning, taking heed, stacking up supplies, making sure they're able to stay inside out of this storm that's going to last not only from today but on into sunday, monday and then tuesday when we supposedly get another wallop of this storm. so a really bad system moving in. and it may be very well historic as we move forward. but protections and precautions are now in place. send it back to you. >> yeah, when you start talking about sandbags, steve, being used in san francisco, it's a deal. nbc's steve patterson in san francisco watching the double

doozy we're seeing this weekend of storms on the east and west coast. much more from ft. lauderdale as well. that's our other big breaking story on this day. that's next hour. plus, the latest on that winter storm that's pummelling the east coast i was just mentioning. that storm already being blamed for at least four deaths. we'll be right back. light-heartd i take to the open road. healthy, free, the world before me, the long brown path before me leading wherever i choose. the east and the west are mine. the north and the south are mine. all seems beautiful to me.

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i'm ayman mohyeldin live in ft. lauderdale, florida. we start this hour with breaking news. the fbi's field office in anchorage, alaska will hold a news conference at 4:30 eastern time with more information on the airport shooting suspect esteban santiago. what will that bring? we will tell you as soon as it happens. also, new details on the planning of the attack. santiago only checked a handgun case at the airport, no luggage, no other baggage. thisccording to the chief of police at the anchorage airport. and the fbi saying today that the ft. lauderdale airport was targeted by santiago acting

alone. >> indications are that he came here to carry out this horrific attack. we have not identified any triggers that would have caused this attack. >> now at this hour we understand that santiago is cooperating with authorities. officials don't have a motive yet. though terrorism has not been eliminated. >> we have interviewed all of his family members that we've been able to identify so far. and we will continue to do that. and we have interviewed him. we're looking over all of his social media things like that. it's giving us a picture of the individual. but it's way too early for us to really rule out anything. >> also this hour, we're learning more details about the moments leading up to this shooting. santiago was in fact not on any no-fly list. he did follow tsa rules